A brand new guide revealed that former President Joe Biden’s crew selected to not have the president take a cognitive take a look at in February 2024, over issues that taking the take a look at itself would increase extra questions on his age, The New York Instances reported Sunday.
Authors Tyler Pager, a reporter for The New York Instances, Josh Dawsey, a reporter for the Wall Road Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter for the Washington Publish, wrote the guide, titled, “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” which is ready to be launched in July.
The guide, certainly one of a number of about the tumultuous 2024 presidential election, particulars that Biden’s prime aides debated having him full a cognitive take a look at to quell issues about his age.
The aides had been reportedly assured Biden would go the take a look at.
“At the same time, Mr. Biden’s longtime doctor, Kevin O’Connor, had told aides he would not take the 81-year-old president’s political standing into consideration when treating him,” the Instances reported, citing the guide.
The controversy over whether or not the president ought to take the take a look at occurred in February 2024, a number of months earlier than the June debate towards President Donald Trump, and simply a few weeks earlier than Biden’s White Home bodily examination, the Instances reported.
It was the identical month that Particular Counsel Robert Hur’s report concerning the former president’s mishandling of categorized paperwork was launched.
The particular counsel described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The NYT report additionally described a dialog from the brand new guide between former Biden chief of employees Ron Klain and former Obama aide and frequent CNN visitor, David Axelrod.
Klain, in response to NYT, referred to as Axelrod following a Instances report from June 2022 that quoted Axelrod saying, “The stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue.”
“That comment prompted an angry call to Mr. Axelrod from Ron Klain, then Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, according to the book. Mr. Klain wanted to know why Mr. Axelrod was fueling doubts about a Democratic president who was on track to begin a re-election campaign,” the NYT reported.
“There’s no Obama out there, Axe,” Klain stated in the course of the name, in response to the Instances. “Who’s going to do it if he doesn’t do it?”
One other new guide concerning the 2024 marketing campaign revealed that Klain stated Biden was “fatigued, befuddled and disengaged” earlier than his debate with Trump in June. Klain helped Biden put together for the talk after exiting his White Home function.
“At his first meeting with Biden in Aspen Lodge, the president’s cabin,” creator Chris Whipple wrote, Klain “was startled. He’d never seen him so exhausted and out of it. Biden was unaware of what was happening in his own campaign. Halfway through the session, the president excused himself and went off to sit by the pool.”
Whipple’s guide, “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History,” was launched in April.
A consultant for Biden didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
